The Avatar's Advisor (HIATUS)

The Avatar State

Well, I feel like I've had my writer's moment. I had surgery in July which turned into a 6-month long event of surgeries and endless doctor's appointments with no known cause for starting. The week I was meant to return to writing, I had another last-minute surgery, so here I am, frantically writing as many season two chapters as possible before I return to Uni.

Anyways, TW: mentions of suicide, internalized transphobia, (a lot of) body horror (it's a skippable dream sequence marked by **), and s/a

"You so readily call me a tyrant, and you tell me that I have a hand in the abuse you suffered." Tola's voice booms across the dark, endless void Polu faces. "But have you ever considered what you have done to us?"

Polu blinks and finds himself in a court-like room. His mother, Tola, sits where a judge would.

"Have you any idea how poorly you treated me? You may not have laid hands on me, but you contributed just as much to the mental abuse as your father. You threw his actions in my face as though I was the one who had done them, despite your being old enough to understand who was responsible."

Polu's eyes sting as various scenarios come to mind, all of which he accused Tola of horrible things she'd never done.

"And you never failed to remind me how much you hated me and wanted me gone. You're rather lucky I didn't kill myself. My blood would've been on your privileged, princely hands." The woman leans forward and sneers at Polu. "You tried so hard to avoid becoming your father that you inevitably did exactly that." She gestures to the jury seats and, one by one, they fill up.

A man Polu assumes is Bumi in his late twenties is the first to speak up. "You lashed out at me, too. You treated me like an adult, but I was just ten. You cast all the blame on our parents and never stopped to reflect that maybe you were responsible too."

The young man scoffs at his brother. "If only you'd protected me as much as you thought you had."

The next to appear is Aang. "You didn't stop me from leaving that night. If you had, maybe the airbenders would all still be alive." The Avatar crosses his arms angrily. "You're not a very good advisor, or mentor either. We wouldn't have half the problems we did if you were better at your job. And stop acting so emotionally all the time; it makes our job harder than needed. I don't want to hear about your stupid love life."

"It gets tiring trying to help you through another one of your emotional outbursts," Katara spits. "It's hard enough dealing with Sokka."

A white-haired princess shows up next. "You were jealous of me and hated me just because Sokka loved me and not you. You couldn't accept reality until I was dead. I thought we were alike, but I'd rather be the moon than some heartless prince like you."

The onslaught of accusations sounds like glass shattering in Polu's ears. Every bad memory is coupled with various disdainful glares.

Yu is after Yue. "You killed firebenders just as heartlessly as they kill us. You are no cousin of mine, and you certainly aren't Tola's son. You're more and more like your father every day."

Searing pain blooms in the boy's chest at that comment.

Sokka appears in the final seat. "I was right about you. You deserved to be sold off to Azulon. I just wish they'd killed you instead of letting you go. My life has been considerably worse since you entered it. I wouldn't have been hurt; Yue wouldn't have died; neither Water Tribe would be destroyed, and maybe Aang would be a better Avatar if you'd been killed a century ago."